Nocardia albiluteola sp. nov., a novel lignin-degrading actinobacterium isolated from rhizosphere soil of pumpkin

A novel lignin-degrading actinobacterium, designated NEAU-G5T, was isolated from pumpkin rhizosphere soil collected from field in Mudanjiang, Heilongjiang Province, northeast China, and characterized using polyphasic approach. The prior 16S rRNA gene sequence similarities and phylogenic analysis showed that strain NEAU-G5T exhibited close phylogenetic relatedness to Nocardia miyunensis NBRC 108239T (98.82 %), Nocardia nova NBRC 15556T (98.75 %), Nocardia jiangxiensis NBRC 101359T (98.68 %) and Nocardia macrotermitis RB20T (98.61 %). Morphological and chemotaxonomic characteristics indicated that strain NEAU-G5T could be assigned to the genus Nocardia. The polar lipids consisted of diphosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylinositol, an unidentified phospholipid and an unidentified lipid. The predominant menaquinone was MK-8(H4, ω-cycl). The major fatty acids (>10 %) were identified as C16 : 0, C18 : 1 ω9c, 10-methyl C18 : 0 and C18 : 0. Mycolic acids were present. The genomic DNA G+C content of strain NEAU-G5T was 68 mol%. Moreover, based on digital DNA-DNA hybridization and average nucleotide identity values, strain NEAU-G5T could be differentiated from its reference strains. In addition, an azure B plate decolorization test and genomic analysis indicated that strain NEAU-G5T had the ability to degrade lignin. On the basis of polyphasic characteristics, strain NEAU-G5T represents a novel species of the genus Nocardia, with the name Nocardia albiluteola sp. nov. The type strain is NEAU-G5T (=CCTCC AA 2021018T=DSM 110547T).